Family Issues
by Alex Damien
Summary: A story about Jack's relationship with his parents and how they aren't bad people, just bad parents. This story includes slowly developing Chack (Chase Young x Jack Spicer)
1. Chapter 1

**Family Issues**

The wu alarm activated, and Jack cursed under his breath. He had planned to run a few more tests on his latest upgrade to his jackbots, but it looked like time was against him. He turned off the alarm, checking the location on the map. He calculated he could spare a couple minutes for a small tuning before he rushed out.

The door to his lab opened "Jacob! Are you here?" called a deep male voice, and Jack froze. It was his father.

"I-I'm down here," he grabbed a rag to try and clean some of the oil from his hands. His father would be angry if he got one of his expensive suits dirty. "I'll be up in a second!"

But his father was already walking down the stairs to the lab. Jack bit his lower lip, bracing himself for whatever it was that he had done wrong. It must have been bad, if it merited a surprise visit from his father.

Mr. Lionel Jacob Spicer entered the lab with a confident stride even as he lifted an eyebrow at the bunch of electronic bits and robot parts thrown around.

"You have upgraded the basement quite a lot. Last time I saw it, you only had the big computer in the back."

"Uhm, yeah, a bit." Jack tried to remember when was the last time his father had been down to the lab, but lost count of the years. It must have been when he had first started researching robotics and his mom had let him use the basement. His father nodded, as if lost in thought.

"Are you busy?"

"No, sir."

"Good. I have a dinner party in Austria and we can make it there if we get going now. Go get your suit."

"Oh. Sure, yeah…" Jack said, dragging his feet as he crossed the lab. His father scoffed out a laugh.

"I know you think you'll hate it, but I came to get you because there's going to be some sort of robotics guy there. I don't know anything about that, but I've heard he's pretty good. Maybe you've heard of him, his name is Robert Erlson."

That made Jack freeze in place. "Rober Erlson? The one who developed the latest latency booster for the machtron V? I tried it out and it worked like a dream until it crashed under, uhm, extreme conditions. But still, I think if I told him about my test results-"

"Jack, Austria is hours away. Suit. Now."

Jack dashed to his room, jumping the steps two at a time. He opened the door to his closet that wasn't filled with goth style clothes to get his suit, when he was quickly reminded that the last time he had worn it had been at least six years ago. Just a few months before he decided to start wearing goth clothes and makeup and his father decided to not take him to any more dinner parties.

"Shoot…" he said.

"Jacob, I'll wait in the helicopter! Hurry up!" called his father from the door.

"Is it a really formal dinner? My suit doesn't fit me anymore!" Jack called from the window in his room that opened to the garden.

His father shook his head and signaled him to get to the helicopter. He was surely going to get an earful now about his shitty clothes and whatnot. He decided to take off his black coat and gloves, then grabbed some elegant black jacket his mother had sent him from Spain last month and ran to the helicopter, while wiping his eyes to get the makeup off. His father had never liked it, and Jack didn't want him to suddenly decide he shouldn't go to the party because of it. His eyes started tearing up, and he tripped over a small rock on the side of the driveway.

"What are you doing? You're going to fall! Try to see while you run, Jacob!" his father said, slapping Jack's hands away from his face.

"Sorry, just trying to get this off…" mumbled Jack.

His father glared down at him. When had the old man gotten so many white strands among the perfectly styled brown of his hair? There were so many. His father smiled, then laughed.

"Now you look like a panda! For god's sake, Jack, get in the helicopter already!"

With a nervous laugh, Jack climbed into the family helicopter and they went straight to the airport. It had been a while since he had last flown in anything that wasn't his helipad, even though he could always call for the family jet. He didn't use it often, because his mother tended to use it almost all the time.

"Is mom already there or are we gonna pick her up somewhere?" asked Jack, settling down on a seat by the window.

His father took a moment to serve himself some cognac before answering.

"Your mother isn't coming. She's still somewhere in Canada."

"Aw too bad." Shrugged Jack. He hadn't seen her in a long while, though she sent presents every month from wherever she was at the time, just like his father.

Jack looked up, and found his father looking at him intently. The older man's eyes looked away as soon as they met his. There was something going on, and a cold dread settled in Jack's stomach.

They traveled in silence, with jack sketching some ideas he'd been thinking about, regarding a new model of latency booster chip while his father sent emails and checked his many investments.

It was a warm kind of silence Jack hadn't realized he missed.


	2. Chapter 2

**Family Issues 2**

Wuya dragged her feet as she entered Chase's hideout. Those damned monks had taken the Wu right out of her hands, but she didn't have enough strength to keep being angry at them. Instead, she gritted her teeth and sat on the ground beside the pool. It was at times like these when she missed that idiot Jack Spicer making a loud entrance and taking all of the monks' attention so she could get the Wu. She combed back her messed hair and wondered just where Jack was. It wasn't like him to let a Wu go without putting up a pathetic effort to get it.

She trailed a finger across the still waters of the pool, forming a sigil she knew by heart.

"Well, well, where have you been Jackie?...," she whispered, as an image formed on the waves.

A great hall appeared, lighted by great chandeliers with shining cristals like diamons that reflected soft lights over the people that danced and talked; all of them dressed in expensive tuxedos and bejewelled dresses. Among them, she saw a red haired head and instantly recognized Jack.

She had to blink twice to make sure that wasn't good Jack, though. Jack sat next to an ugly old man with gray hair who seemed to listen intently to him. He was dressed in a tuxedo that fit him perfectly, yet he had unbuttoned the first two buttons of the shirt and taken off the bow tie, which hung from his neck along with his goggles. It looked like Jack had tried to style his hair into something more appropiate for the ocassion, combing it backwards, but his rebel strands of hair were already sticking up and out of place. And the usual black line down his left eye was nowhere to be seen, which gave him an older look that, more than anything else, made him look like a stranger to Wuya.

"I mean, under normal conditions it behaves perfectly, but put any kind of strain on it and the sigals start going off the charts," was saying Jack to the old man. Wuya recognized the obsession shining in his eyes when he recounted his experiments and the different tests he had made with his robots. It was the same he had whenever he talked about world domination, and the whole scene gave Wuya a strange sense of nostalgia that she didn't like.

"With those clothes he looks even thinner and almost sick," said a voice behind her, and Wuya whirled around to find Chase looking down at the images on the pool.

A splash of her hand and Jack's image faded away.

"He has always been one for ridiculous disguises," said Wuya, rising from her spot.

She saw Chase eyeing her intently, looking for something Wuya wished wasn't plain in her face.

Humanity.

Jack always brought up the worst in everyone.


	3. Chapter 3

**Family Issues 4**

Professor Erlson listened intently as Jack listed his tests of the latency booster he had developed. As soon as Jack realized he was talking to someone who actually understood what he was talking about, he hadn't stopped talking. The speed tests, the way it worked with different versions of his AI software, by the time he couldn't keep talking, he had already enunciated enough tests results to publish a paper on the behavior of AI on humanoid robots and the different ways using the latency booster to get past the uncanny valley in terms of behavior and speed of reaction.

The professor blinked, then opened and closed his mouth a few times. As if he had something to say and then just realized that nope, not happening. Jack knew the feeling, so he just grinned, and felt his face hurt. For a moment he thought it was because he had spent the last hour and a half talking nonstop, but then he caught a glance of his own reflection on a champagne glass and realized he had been smiling all the time. Not grinning, or smirking, but actually smiling soflty in a way that pulled the edges of his lips ever so slightly.

The professor had said something.

"Uh, what?," he asked, looking away from anything that might reflect his face.

"I asked what university you go to, Jack," said the professor, laughing a bit. Jack blushed, and wondered if he should make up some lie or...

"Uhm, I'm home schooled. And seventeen."

"Unbelievable...unbelievable...," that was the only word the professor could say for a while, but then he stood up and demanded that Jack study at Leipzig University with him so they could work on coordinating their experiments and advancing each other's discoveries on the field of robotics.

Jack was suddenly terrified.

He had always sucked at school. Oh, studying and learning was fine, of course. But the whole 'interacting with other people' had been hell on earth. And it was all so boring!

But of course, he wouldn't be studying like a normal student, he would just use the lab and direct his own experiments and have access to the leading minds in the field. Enough tuning and support to finally complete all those great proyects he had been working on but left behind because of the Wu hunting.

Someone brushed against his shoulder, and he looked next to him to find a freckled face surrounded by curly redish hair. Megan.

"My cousin's not one for quick decisions," she said, flashing a smile that reminded Jack of the times she had thrown him fully clothed to the pool.

The professor nodded. "Of course, of course. You should think about something like this carefully. But if you have the time, you should visit me at the university. I will show you around and you can think about it better. How about that?"

"Y-yeah, sure," mumbled Jack, all too aware that Megan was suddenly taller than he remembered. Taller than him, for that matter.

"Perfect. Here is my card. Do call and I will have a few things we've been working on to show you."

Jack nodded, and the professor excused himself saying he had to get back to his hotel. When Jack looked around he noticed only a handful of people still wandered around the hall.

"Uncle said to make sure you went back to the hotel while he and dad talked," said Megan. Her dress managed to fail at hiding the fact that her body had decided hips were optional and unnecessary. Jack filed the knowledge away for the innevitable verbal fight that was sure to come.

"Nah, tell him I went back home. I know how long those talks take," he said, and passed a hand through his hair. The stiffness was giving him a headache. Megan pulled at his coat.

"No. Go back, he looked like he was pretty serious 'bout that."

Megan wouldn't face him, and she didn't seem to want to comment on how he looked like a twilight vampire reject, which started to worry him.

"What's he on? I know there's something going on, he's been all weird and shit," Jack shoved his hands in his pockets as they walked out of the hall into the reception with a golden fountain.

"Hell if I know," said Megan, in the tone that Jack knew meant she knew all about it. But he would have more chance of getting anything out of Chase Young that out of Megan when she got like that.

"Fine, whatever, I'm going back to the hotel Goliath."

Megan kicked him in the shin and then pushed him straight into the fountain.

"Here's for old times sake, loser," she said.

"You suck!" spat Jack from the fountain. "You and your stupid cat obsessed friends!"

"What?"

"That cat freak Katnappe!"

"Oh, yeah, the cat freak. You still talk to her?"

"Unfortunately, even though she's your friend. Take her back."

"No way. I just invited her to that party to get embarrassing photos of her, but then she disappeared."

"I bet she did," Jack crawled out of the fountain. He looked up at Megan, who had a thoughtful expression devoid of malice that scared Jack far more than anything. "What?!"

"Nothing. Just thinking."

"Bet that's a complicated thing for you."

Jack found himself in the fountain again.


	4. Chapter 4

**Family Issues 4**

Jack had gone back to the hotel that night. Dripping wet and miserable in his new tuxedo, it was the only thing he could do. Once there, he took a warm bath and then threw himself on the couch to watch cartoons with a notebook where he started drafting a bit of what he had told professor Erlser. He still hadn't made up his mind about what he was going to say to the professor. He didn't even know what he himself thought about the whole idea. But regardless of that, he thought he might just put together a simple draft of a paper that explained evereything they'd talked that night and send it to him so he could develop something with their joint knowledge.

He chewed on his pencil as another episode of the Metalocalypse marathon started on the tv. The more he thought of having a lab full of competent people at his service the more incomplete projects ose to the front of his mind. Most would only require a bunch of boring tuning up, others required a lot of dull tests performed so he could finish them. So many things that he didn't want to deal with because they were just too boring for him, but which in their current state served no purpose. How much faster could he advance his discoveries if he could get all that awful dredging work out of the way?

He fell asleep thinking of endless possibilities.

His father never arrived.


	5. Chapter 5

**Family Issues 5**

The latest Wu, the Rolling Dawn, was one of the few that caught Chase's attention. It increased the time time that spells lasted. He had heard it was an almost insignificant amount of time, though. A few days at most. But with dragons so scarce, he was willing to test it. So he had followed Wuya to Paris, a city he hadn't seen in a few hundred years. The streets were clean, and there were almost no beggars around, which was a surprising change. Yet, it still had the same feeling of years past, despite the new glass buildings all around. Paris would always be Paris, it seemed. When you were immortal, time passed differently, changing everything around you so much, that finding something that stayed the same was a pleasant surprise.

"I found it!" shouted Wuya, pointing at a gargoyle on top of a building. It held a golden talisman in its open jaws. From the south, Chase could feel a dragon's presence approaching. He jumped up the building, holding on to any edge, and using his claws when there was none. He had already reached the top when Dojo came down among the clouds.

Kimiko jumped down from Dojo's back, accelerating her fall, and shooting a fireball at the gargoyle just when Chase had been about to grab it. he roared as the talisman fell among bits of stone from the broken gargoyle.

"Chase Young! We are here to stop you!" shouted Omi as he and the others jumped from Dojo's back. Chase smirked and jumped down the building to search for the wu. His fall was met with fireballs as Kimiko tried her best to stop him. Raimundo took out the sword of the storm and used the wind to draw kimiko's fireballs into a fire tornado around Chase.

The warlord smirked. They had all become much better than he had expected.

But not good enough.

He punched the ground at the center of the tornado, throwing Kimiko off balance and making a gash in the firewall to jump through and kick her. Surprised right out of his focus it took only a jump and a punch to get Raimundo out of the crashed into the building to his left leaving a hole and a rain of debris behind him.

All around, the screams of the terrified commoners surrounded them in a beautiful cacophony of terror, and he delighted at them.

Until he recognized one. A long screeching like that of a little girl.

"Spicer...," he muttered, looking behind him to where the street opened into a large avenue, and saw a head of long, bright red hair. And the skin, almost white.

But that was a woman.

A couple men in dark suits with guns rushed to cover here while more of them appeared on top of all the buildings around them.

Chase looked at the woman again, seeing her struggle to get up from the ground, and caught a sight of her face.

Red eyes.

Chase Young didn't believe in coincidences, so he put a tracking spell on her before she was rushed into a black car. By the time he looked behind, Omi had already taken hold of the Shen Gon Wu. It seemed like Spicer managed to ruin everything without even being present. Just his existence proved disastrous for all who had to deal with him.

Chase lifted an eyebrow at Omi, who seemed at a loss for words for once.

"You have all gotten much better," he purred. "I will be seeing you all again soon."

And disappeared without even waiting to see what had happened to Wuya.


	6. Chapter 6

**Family Issues 6**

Jack woke up to find a blanket draped over him and his father talking on the phone to someone in french. He grinned, thinking about that time when his mom said that he'd inherited his language skills from his father.

He hadn't expected his father to really go back to the hotel, so that was a surprise too.

The memory of Megan's face when he asked what was going on flashed through his mind, and erased all traces of the smile. He started to get ready for the other shoe to drop. Better get ready, since experience said that was the next thing just waiting to happen

His father put down the cell phone. "You should have at least gone to bed and watched the tv there," he said, giving him an annoyed look. "I can no longer carry you to your bed. You are almost as tall as Megan now."

Jack got up. Room service had already brought breakfast. "She's gonna be huge," he said, and sat down to get himself a huge stack of pancakes. He hadn't realized it but he was starving.

"No, Jack, she's already huge. And so are you," said his father, eyeing him critically. Jack looked up, his mouth full of pancakes. He had forgotten that his father was, in fact, two meters tall.

Another incoming call saved them the awkward moment of having to face the fact that they hadn't really seen each other in way too long. If you didn't count video calls, letters, or phone calls, it could easily have been years. A couple at least. It was no surprise they had forgotten how the other looked.

His father hung up.

"Did you, uhm...have fun?" asked his father. The word 'fun' sounded awkward coming from him. Jack was starting to realize how completely absurd this all was. If his father had suddenly gotten some silly guilt attack over not seeing him and tried to overcompensate. Frankly, Jack would have much preferred it if he had just sent him more expensive gifts; instead of taking him out to play like some kind of pet. He felt really stupid right now.

"Yes. A lot," he said, hiding the sarcarm behind a mouthful of pancakes.

"Megan said that the professor looked really interested in you."

"Megan was so nice yesterday," said Jack between gritted teeth.

His father scoffed out a laugh. "Yes, the fountain. The staff told me about it. Will you two ever grow up?"

"She used all her energy in growing, she didn't have any left for maturing!" Yelled Jack. The look his father gave him froze him on the spot. He was suddenly twelve again, and shouting about how Megan had stolen his piece of cake and thrown him to the pool.

"Well, one of you will have to start being the adult at some point. I hope it's you."

"Ugh, next time warn me ahead to expect her. She surprised me at the worst moment. I agreed to visit the professor's university,"

"What?"

"Well, he liked my experiments and said that he would like me to work with him at Leipzig University. He said that I should go and take a look."

"Really? That...that sounds great. Why didn't you want to go? You said you really liked his research."

"I do! It's just...I mean...I'm not good at school, and...stuff…"

His father's brow furrowed, and Jack steeled himself for a lecture on how much of a disappointment he was. Again. It was easier to just delete the lectures by email.

"Jacob. I think you should go," said his father, and paused. Jack clenched his fists so hard, he could feel the skin breaking under his nails. "I know it was better for you at the time, but I never agreed with your mother on taking you out of school."

"But I'm much more inteligent than anyone my age! I didn't need it!"

"Not to learn. But to live. Jacob, I have to say, I'm worried about you. You are almost a man and...I just want to know you will be alright."

Jack felt his face heating. This man at the other side of the world, through a screen, had seen him change. Had seen time pass.

"And going to university is going to help how?" he lashed out tiredly, knowing he had already lost.

"You will see what others are doing. The title doesn't matter, but the experience will be good for you. Try it for a while. At least go and take a look, if you have already agreed to that."

"Fine. Fine, I'll go. But this is useless. I'm fine. I could just as well start working there already, no need for any stupid study course."

"You could do that too."

Jack blinked, realizing too late he had fallen into another trap. How did his father even do that? Evil was supposed to come from his mom's side!


	7. Chapter 7

**Family Issues 7**

After casting a spell that would make his armor look like modern clothes, he followed the trail his mark had left on the woman right into a very expensive restaurant. He found her sitting at a table with a man many years younger than her. Chase took a seat at the bar from which he could observe discreetly and listen to their chat with his heightened sense of hearing.

"Well, I just couldn't make it. Will you stop whining about it?" was saying the redheaded woman. She had cold, uncaring eyes that gave away her age despite the youthful appearance of her skin and perfectly styled hair.

"I'm not whining, but you said you would be there, and the president of the company was very disappointed that he didn't get to meet you."

"I wasn't going to invest in his pathetic little company anyway. I don't see what's the point of his insistence if he already knows my decision."

The woman looked around, seemingly bored of her companion. The more Chase looked at her, the more he saw the resemblance between her and Jack Spicer. It was there in the way she half pouted to show her boredom, even the way she held her martini reminded Chase of Spicer holding one of his tools. Casual elegance entwined with a spoiled, childish attitude. If Spicer was a woman, he would surely end up growing into this kind of bratty woman with eyes devoid of any empathy. The thought made him smirk despite himself.

The woman looked in his direction, and noticed him instantly. Her mouth turned into a predatory smirk.

"I'll see you at Diana's party tonight. Or not." She told her companion, getting up and approaching Chase with a confident attitude. Chase was not interested at all, but he did appreciate the way this woman acted as if the world should bow down to her just for existing. If only such confidence could be taught, maybe Spicer wouldn't be so hopeless. "Well, well, someone's been staring. How rude of you, mister." She said with a soft, alluring tone.

Chase gave her extra points for trying, and a golden star for being far more interesting than Wuya.

"I'm sorry, but you remind me so much of a…friend of mine." He smirked as he said 'friend'.

"That is such a common excuse. I'd have expected more from a gentleman as elegant as you."

"I'm afraid it's the truth. The resemblance is almost uncanny. Spicer himself would be surprised."

The woman's eyes narrowed, showing a violent coldness.

"What? Who is this friend of yours?"

"Jacob Spicer." Chase got up, and offered a polite bow to play the part of the perfect gentleman. Everything was falling into place. He didn't expect to run into such a chance. "I'm sorry, I should introduce myself. My name is Chase Young."

As he looked up, Chase found all traces of the dangerous ice in the woman's eyes had vanished, replaced by a strange warmth.

"Oh, my god! You're Chase Young!" she said, giggling like a school girl. "I'm Jack's mom, you can call me Miranda. Jack can't stop talking about you. Come, come; I've been wanting to meet you, but Jack says you are a very busy man." She took his arm and led him to a table next to one of the large windows. Chase was stunned into silence at the way the woman seemed to have changed personalities completely. But the thing that astounded him even more was the way this change only accentuated the similarities between the woman and Jack Spicer. "I thought Jack had been exaggerating when describing you, but you really are a great looking gentleman. Is it true you are also a martial arts master?"

"I am…quite good at it."

"And humble, oh my! You are as perfect as he describes you. It's like you're his idol."

"Heh. Really? I wouldn't have suspected it."

"Oh, he tells me everything."

Miranda snapped her fingers and a waiter appeared instantly next to their table ready to take their orders. The apathetic coldness was gone, but she still acted like a queen. And everyone happily obliged. It was a strange kind of power, Chase realized. He ruled by imposing his might and strength, conquering and overpowering. But here was this woman, who appeared to command respect by her mere existence.

"Order anything you want, it's on me." She encouraged him with a smile. "I had never met any of Jack's friends. He's always so secretive, but I'm so glad he's joined your treasure hunt game, even if he loses all the time. At least it gets him out of that basement, and just for that I'm willing to pay for any damages to the house."

Chase nearly choked on his jasmine tea. When Miranda had said that Jack told her everything, he didn't expect him to actually tell her about the hunt for the Shen Gon Wu. Although he must have had to explain the constant destruction of his parents' property somehow.

"Ah. Well, we do get a little…excited sometimes."

Miranda nodded. "Oh, boys will always be boys. Don't worry."

Chase noticed a small trembling to her fingers when she held the pearls of her necklace, and her smile didn't seem as confident as before.

"My husband keeps saying that I worry too much about him. But I'm his mother, worrying about him is all I do." She giggled. A woman in a dark suit approached. Chase had noticed the various men in dark suits from the moment he entered. It seemed that while Jack used robots, his mother used people. He liked the idea.

"Ma'am, we need to leave now if you are to see Mr. Soaldar."

Miranda sighed, and for a moment the cold was back in her eyes.

"That old fool. I can't wait to get rid of him." She turned her warm motherly smile back on for Chase. "I'm sorry, but I must leave. It's been lovely meeting you. If you ever have some time, it would be my pleasure to arrange a small dinner for all of you boys."

For a moment, Chase felt like Miranda would try pinching his cheeks. An image flashed before his eyes of a woman, thousands of years ago, giving him that same smile and ruffling his hair.

He lowered his hands, hiding the fact that he had almost lost control over his human form, just for a second there.


	8. Chapter 8

Jack's father wouldn't leave until he made sure Jack called the professor and arranged a date for visiting. After he left, Jack waited until the maids brought his clean clothes. He checked on his Wu alert, since he had turned the volume off since the day before, and realized he had lost yet another one. He groaned in frustration. As if he needed to get even more left behind on the wu hunting. He checked the news and saw that it had been a pretty bad fight before any of them got a hold of the wu. A fire tornado and a hole in the ground. Raimundo and Kimiko seemedto be working much better together, but the hole in the ground (at the center of the tornado, he noticed) had to have been Chase. If he got back to the house right now, he could finish setting up a new batch of robots and get things ready for the next Shen Gon Wu, pehaps even get some info on the two wus he had lost.

He put on his clothes and reached for his helipad. Which of course wasn't there. It was back home on the floor of his room where he had thrown it after taking off his coat. Cue facepalming moment. All he had was that awfull black jacket and his set of emergency tools he always carried in his usual pants. Not much, but it would have to do.

He looked at the tv, the dvd player and the room phone, quickly putting together all the components in his head and figuring he could build himself a half decent communicator to send messages to his computer back home. He would just need to use the screen from his cell phone. He took it out and saw a message from his mom, from last night.

_Hi baby! I'm in Paris. You want anything from here? I got you a beautiful black coat like the ones you like, but if you want anything else just ask._

Alarms started going of in Jack's head. So his mom had been in Paris at the time of the battle? He checked the news more throughly and found her "Miranda Spicer, wife of the famed multimillionaire escapes strange explosion in Paris."

"No...no, no, no..." he repeated as he called his mom's number. It rang a couple times and a woman's voice picked up.

"Hello, this is Miranda Spi-"

"Pass me my mom, Sara," ordered Jack. There was a pause at the other end of the line. His mom's assistant knew better than to talk to Jack.

"Hi honey!," said his mom, voice high and chipper like always.

"Mom, are you alright?! I just saw the news on the showd- err, the explosion!"

"Oh, dear. I'm fine. Perfectly fine, don't worry. We were just passing by when some gas ducts or something exploded on a nearby street. Gave me a good fright, but nothing else honey".

Jack sighed. "Oh, well, good thing. Where are you right now?"

"Just finished a boring meeting with some old geezer. Oh, but you won't believe who I met earlier! Your friend Chase Young!"

Jack's legs gave out.

"R-really?," he asked from the floor. His hands were shaking. "Is he still there?"

"Oh, no. We talked a bit and then I had to leave. But he is just as charming as you described him! And twice as handsome!"

Jack crawled towards the dvd and started dismantling it. He needed to get his robots, his helipad, his everything as soon as possible.

"Heh, heh, I know right? Did he want to talk about someting specific with you?" Jack tried to keep the paranoia in his voice to a minimum. Chase had fought for a Shen Gon Wu (most likely he had won it, too) and had then gone to meet his mom. Why? It didn't make any sense at all. Chase hated him and didn't even care about his existence! Why would he-?

"Oh, no. We ran into each other at a restaurant and he said that I reminded him of his friend Jack. The world is so small, don't you think?"

"Yeah, so small," Chase at a restaurant? And saying that Jack was his friend? That sounded like Wuya dressing up and trying to play an ugly prank on him. Wouldn't be the first time, either. He gritted his teeth when he thought of it. Wuya knew better than to mess with his parents. Or at least she should.

"I can see why you like him so much. I wish I could have stayed longer".

"Are you still in Paris? I'm in Austria. I went with dad to a party last night. Do you think you could pass by to get me?" he had to make sure Wuya hadn't done anything weird to his mom.

There was silence in the line, and Jack paused on dismantling the tv. "Mom?"

"He told you to go to a party in Austria?"

"Uh? Well, he went home to get me."

"Hmp. I see. Is he still there?"

"No, he had some work somewhere else. I was supposed to take a plane home, but-"

"Oh, no, don't worry dear. I'll be there, wait for me. Hold on," Jack could hear muffled shouting from the other end, and knew his mom would probably be shouting orders to her staff. It sounded like everything was as normal as usual, but he still wanted to check for himself. He got up and started taking apart the touch screen for the A/C controls, since he wouldn't be able to use his cell phone now.

His mom's voice came back. "I'll be there tonight darling. Can you take a cab to the airport or do you want me to call them?"

"Uh, I-"

A cold hand fell on his shoulder.

"You should let her call it. You'd just get lost," said a female voice behind him. Jack froze, and looked to the long, sharp nails on his shoulder.

"I'll get there myself mom. Bye," and he hung up.

Wuya let go of him. "Taking a vacation with your parents? How cute," she said.

"What do you want Wuya?" asked Jack, suddenly too aware of how he had left all his things back home. Wuya sat back on the couch. "Can't I come visit you Jackie dear? You haven't been around for the Showdowns, so I decided to come and see how you were doing".

"Really? Ah, well, you know. Busy and stuff. Dad wanted me to get out of the house, heh, heh...,"

"Taking you out for a walk? You do look like you need fresh air," said Wuya, and looked at her nails with a bored expression. Jack knew that they were just dancing around each other at this point. Waiting for the other one to take that one false step. It would be Jack, of course. But he liked to fall down his own way.

"Yeah, sort of...You know how they are".

He connected a couple cables and realized he wasn't getting anywhere with it in time for it to be useful.

"Actually, I don't. But it seems Chase does. Mind telling him why he was so interested in your mom, that he lost a Shen Gon Wu?"

"What? I don't-"

"Don't lie, Jack. You are so bad at it. I heard your mom tell you she had met with Chase," she got up from the couch, and Jack stepped back. The touch screen was still connected to the A/C, and with a couple touches he had already overcharged it. "You can tell me everything now, or we can go somewhere more...private".

The entire A/C connection in the room went off. The air vents started smoking, and the fire alarm went off at the time the fire extinguisher drenched them.

"Jaaaaack!," shouted Wuya, striking at him among the smoke and the water.

Jack sidestepped, stumbled over a chair and fell down. Wuya pushed her wet hair off her face and Jack used that moment to push the breakfast table from his spot on the floor. It hit her full on and Jack ran out the hotel were already out to see what was going out, but Jack ignored everyone and dashed down the stairs. Thankfully this was some kind of boutique hotel with only a few floors, but he knew there was no way to outrun Wuya on his own. He was already feeling breathless when he reached the street outside. He could hear Wuya tearing things apart inside the hotel.

He extended his arm to stop a taxi and got inside. "Go straight, as fast as you can. Now!" The driver gave him a strange look, but sped up. Jack sat back and breathed deeply. "Take the longest way to the airport, but don't slow down." he noticed the cd player in the taxi and tore it off the dashboard.

"Kid, don't you-!"

"I'll pay for it too! Just keep driving!" he gave the man a couple hundred dollar bills that his father had given him. He still had a couple credit cards but he had to finish his communicator before Wuya caught up with him and no matter what he did she would be at the airport when his mom arrived.

And furious.

She would be completely furious.


	9. Chapter 9

Miranda Spicer glared at her cell phone. Jack had sent a message saying he would be late, but then had refused to answer all twelve of her calls. She paced the length of the jet with a glass of cognac and clutching at her pearls; while her assistant Sara stayed on her seat and tried to not look at her.

That boy was in so much trouble. He knew he shouldn't make her worry like that. The least he could do was to answer her calls and explain what the problem was. She could bet it had been Lionel. He had made Jack lie and say he wasn't there. He had used Jack to find out where she was, of course. She should have suspected it and sent someone for Jack, but Lionel had already gotten to him and god knows what he had been telling her baby.

She screamed in rage and threw the glass to the floor. "Dammit! Why won't that kid answer?!"

"My, my; if only he had inherited your temper," said a voice from the entrance, and a redhaired woman entered.

"Who are you? How did you get past security?"

"I'm sorry. Jack said he would call you. I'm Wuya, a friend of his. I'm sure he has told you about me".

Miranda blinked. "Oh. Wuya, of course. Please take a seat." Wuya stepped over the broken glass and sat in front of Sara. Miranda noticed she wore no shoes, but stopped herself from rising an eyebrow at that. "Can I offer you something? Sara, go tell Mr. Smith we are having a visitor."

Sara nodded and left the jet. Miranda took an almost empty bottle of wine and looked at it critically.

"Wine will be fine," said Wuya. "Jack told me you and Chase had met today. That is very interesting, since Chase is a very...reserved man".

"Yes. Jack told me as much".

In less than a heartbeat, Wuya held Miranda by the arm in an iron grip."You are smarter than Jack, what a surprise. Now call your men back". She pointed to the window where Miranda's bodyguards had surrounded the jet. She made a mental note to hire smarter bodyguards.

But for now, she would have to deal with this herself.

She bashed the wine bottle on Wuya's head and pushed her into the broken glass on the floor. She jumped over Wuya and ran to the entrance where her bodyguards were already rushing inside.

But when she looked back, Wuya had disappeared.

She fell to the ground in shock. Because on the bottle and on the floor was still blood, but she was unscathed.

Jack had been right, that woman was actually a witch.


	10. Chapter 10

A soft light illuminated the golden decorations embroidered by hand in the simple green tunic laid out on a slab of white marble. A tunic that had long stopped fitting him long before his immortality started. But it was the only thing that had remained in the end. Jack's mother's smile had brought back the memory of this tunic, which he had long ago sealed in the deepest corner of his lair.

A thousand years meant nothing, when the feeling of a woman's hand passing through his hair was still burned ever so fresh in his skin.

Wuya entered his lair. He knew it before the doors had finished opening. Wuya's angry aura was not something easy to ignore.

He closed the doors of the chamber and went up to see what was the matter with her. She had become more and more of a nuissance as of late.

"What is the matter this time?," he asked, but Wuya refused to look at him.

Then he saw the bloody footprints.

"The matter? That idiot Jack is the matter!," Wuya turned around. She was seething, and had a small trail of blood running down the side of her face.

"Spicer did this to you?"

"One of the Spicers. His mother is even more annoying than him".

"Oh".

And for the first time, Chase could not find anything more to say.


	11. Chapter 11

Jack found his mom at the airport cafeteria. She got up when she saw him and hugged him so hard, he could barely breathe.

"My baby! Where have you been?! Why didn't you answer any of my calls?!"

"I...dropped my phone, and then it didn't work. I was late because I was trying to fix it."

His mom shook her head. "You should have just bought another one instead of wasting so much time! I've been so worried".

"Sorry mom".

"Honey, you know I don't like to comment on your friends in a bad way, but that woman Wuya is just terrible. You can't keep seeing her!"

"Wuya was here?!"

"Yes, and she was an awful visitor. She was far worse than what you told me about. I really wish you would stop teaming with her".

Her assistant approached them. She looked pale and a bit sick. "The jet is ready, Miranda".

"Come on Jack, we are already late enough".

She got up. Her movements were tense and she didn't giggle like usual when he saw her.

"Wait, what happened? Are you alright? Did she do something to you?"

"No, no; nothing. She was just very rude. I'm afraid I had to be a bit rough with her to convince her to leave".

Jack felt his blood run cold. He remembered the last person his mom had to be rough with. His last nanny, Jeaninne.

"B-but you're fine, right? If she hurted you-"

"Oh, darling. It's fine. She did nothing," she held his head and Jack bowed down to let her kiss his forehead. He suddenly felt like he had failed her.

He should have known. If he hadn't been so scared, and so stupid, he would have seen that Wuya would go for his mom first.

"...Sorry if she was mean to you mom".

"Don't worry honey. Oh my god! You're wearing the jacket I got you! I thought you hadn't liked it! Oh, you look so handsome dear".

Jack smiled and decided that he was going to wear that ugly jacket whenever he saw her.

They got into the jet and his mom started fishing among the many shopping bags she had for everything she had bought Jack.

Sara was at the cabinet fixing his mom a drink. Jack used the moment to corner her.

"Sara?"

"Yes, Mr. Spicer?"

"What happened?"

"I don't know sir".

"Sara, please, I need to know".

She looked down, and seemed to have aged years with a single memory.

"I really didn't see anything. That woman arrived, and she- I don't know how she got past all the security, but suddenly she was here and Miranda knew something was wrong because she sent me to get commander Smith right away. When I came back...I don't know. There was a broken bottle, and, and...blood on the floor. But Miranda was fine, and the other woman had disappeared. I don't...I mean, I have no idea how-".

Sara had started shaking, so Jack took the glass from her hands. "Go and try to sleep for a while. I'll take care of my mom".

"Jackie, dear! Come here!"

Jack went back to her mom and gave her the glass. She had extended a black coat over one of the seats. It looked like some high end version of his own usual goth coat. It was a bit shorter, and had big silver buttons all the way up and on every pocket.

"I know it's not very much like your usual style, but!", she pulled a scarf from one of the bags. "Look, this one has skulls! You like skulls. You can wear them together, especially now that it's nearly fall back home".

Jack looked at the jacket and the black scarf with white skulls. He had always thought that his mom just picked up anything she found around for him as an afterthought.

"Thanks mom, it's great".


	12. Chapter 12

Jack spent an afternoon with his mom in Germany, and then she had to fly to America the next day to negotiate the takeover of some company or something. Jack never paid much attention to any of that boring financial stuff.

He stayed behind to meet professor Erlson at the university. He was already feeling fed up with traveling, but tried to focus on his paper. It was almost done, but he had no idea what to do with all the info. He supposed he could send it for publishing, but what would that do for him? He had no idea how that worked, and honestly, no desire to find out.

He took a taxi that left him near the engineering faculty, but he would have to find the lab on his own.

Looking at the faculty building, and seeing all the students coming in and out of the classrooms made him nervous. He had only gone to school until he was nine, and had been homeschooled until he was twelve. He had already learned everything up to highschool by then, and classes only served to bore him. The whole idea of even going there to visit was now looking like the worst idea ever. Yes, he did like the professor's research, and had used many of his discoveries in his own robots; but working with him seemed useless and completely unnecessary. He could complete anything on his own given enough time, so why bother going to some stupid lab?

Papers in hand, he made his way through the students and checked the numbers on the doors until he found the one. He stood outside for a moment, thinking that he could still back away now and just tell the professor that he was simply not interested, when someone opened the door from the other side and hit him in the face making him drop his papers.

"Oh, I'm sorry!" said some blonde guy with the ugliest glasses Jack had ever seen. They made his eyes look like they took half of his face.

"What the hell, man?! Be careful dammit!"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!", he kept saying, and kneeled down to help Jack pick up everything.

Professor Erlson appeared on the doorway. "What is going on? Oh, Jacob, hi. I expected you a little later. Come on in, I'd like you to meet everybody".

Jack almost growled. Meeting people was very low on his scale of Things He Liked To Do.

The professor took him to the center of the lab. There were about ten people working on different things. Jack recognized the professor's equilibrium test robot that had been aclaimed because it could do ballet poses. If only the professor could see Jack's balance chip that made all movements flow like a dream.

"Alright everybody. Remember how I told you about a few changes we were going to make to our research? Well, this is Jacob Spicer. He has some very interesting tests results with the information from our latest discoveries on the latency booster chip".

"Uhm, Hi... Everyone", on the back, a dark haired woman lifted her eyebrows at him. On the opposite corner, a man and a woman whispered to themselves while looking at his hair, his makeup, his boots...Jack had been there for a full minute, and he already wanted to burn down the whole place. He passed a hand through his hair, trying to calm himself down.

"Please Jack, do you think you could outline - very broadkly, of course-, the things we talked about the other day? Here, have a marker if you want to use the whiteboard".

Jack nodded, pointedly avoiding the stares of everyone around. He left his papers on the table next to him. They were merely a sort of gift for the professor, to be honest. All the information was already on his mind. And so, he took a deep breath, and tried to decide on the best part to start with.

"Alright, so...I started trying the latency booster chip on one of my robots in order to increase the reaction time to stimuli between the movement and the AI data processing," he started writing the starting reaction times. As he wrote numbers, formulas, and test results on the whiteboard, he felt lighter, calmer. He could put order in the world, if only he could understand it.

He talked, explained, detailed the broader aspects of his theories; putting enfasis on all the things that had given him the most trouble.

By the time he got thirsty, sunset light came filtering through the lab windows.

They ordered pizza.

He kept talking.


End file.
